A group of children hike in Roxborough State Park. (Photo courtesy Great Outdoors Colorado)

By Lise AangeenbrugGuest Commentary

June 1 was National Trails Day and the event gave me a chance to consider the many benefits that trails provide in Colorado. It’s no secret Coloradans love trails. Trails for biking along the South Platte. Trails for hiking on open spaces. Trails that connect us to Cherry Creek and Chatfield State Parks. Trails near neighborhoods that allow us to commute to work or our kids to bike to school. The image of living in Colorado includes the notion that we can all walk out our back doors onto a hiking or biking trail.

Each year, Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) teams up with the State Trails Program to award grants for trails across the state. And, in 2014, GOCO will provide an additional $5 million in lottery funds for trail grants to local governments. Since 1994, GOCO funds have helped create or enhance more than 700 miles of trails.

Whether it is a trail that they have to drive to or can walk to from their home, Coloradans cherish their trails that open up the great outdoors to them and their families year-round. These trails can be used by pedestrians, bicyclists, equestrians, snowshoers, cross-country skiers and people of all abilities and typically do not cost anything to use.Read more…

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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To reach the Denver Post editorial page by phone: 303-954-1331

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